The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was founded in 1957; and in 1958, a group of music industry professionals established the Grammy Awards, hoping to focus praise and recognition of popular music of the highest quality and diminish the growing popularity of the rock n' roll genre.

The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held in 1959 with 500 guests in attendance to celebrate excellence in the music industry. Domenco Mondugno's Nel Blu Dip into Di Blue was honored with the Record of the Year Award. Never since then has a non-English record received the Grammy Awards' highest honor.

NBC broadcast the first Grammy Awards ceremony as a special episode of NBC's Sunday Showcase, an anthology series normally emphasizing plays, TV drama, and variety programming. Until 1971, the broadcast took place as a series of taped annual specials called The Best on Record, which allowed ceremonies to be held in both New York and Los Angeles so that winners could accept awards at the ceremony on their respective coasts. In 1971, ABC bought the rights to the awards telecast, and began broadcasting the Grammy awards ceremony live. For the first time, rather than the usual two ceremonies - one on each coast - the ceremony would take place in only one location each year, for the purposes of live broadcasting, that year in New York City. In 1973, CBS bought the rights to the Grammys broadcast, and has been home to the awards show telecast ever since.

Record-breaking Grammy Winners

• The group winning the greatest number of Grammys in history is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with 60 awards to its credit thus far.

• Sir Georg Solti, classical conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestrat, holds the record for the most Grammys awarded to an individual, with 31 Grammys to his name, out of 74 total nominations during his career.

• Quincy Jones (producer, conductor, musician, and arranger) follows closely behind him setting the record of most Grammy Awards won by a producer, with 27 Grammys to his name, and also holds the record for the most Grammy nominations for an individual, at 79 thus far.

• Stevie Wonder holds the record for most Grammys won by a male recording artist, with 22.

• Of female artists, Alison Krauss has won the greatest number of Grammy awards, with 26 so far.

• U2, with 22 Grammy wins, holds the record for the greatest number of wins among bands.

• The album to win the most Grammy Awards is tied between Santana's Supernatural, which won nine awards in the year 2000, and U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which won three awards in 2006 and six awards in 2006.

• Michael Jackson and Santana are tied for the record for most Grammys won in a single night, with eight each - for Thriller in 1984 and Santana in the year 2000, respectively. Michael Jackson also holds the record for the most nominations in a single night, with twelve in 1984.

• Beyonce holds the record for the most Grammys won in a single night by a female artist, with six in 2010 for I Am... Sasha Fierce.

• Brian McKnight holds the record for the most Grammy nominations with no wins - sixteen to his name.

• India Arie holds the record for the most Grammy nominations in a single night with no wins - earning seven in 2002.

• The youngest winner of an Academy Award was country singer LeAnn Rimes, at 14 years old in 1997, also becoming the first country music artist to ever win the Grammy for Best New Artist.

• The oldest Grammy winner of an Academy Award was George Burns, in 1991, who took home the crystal award for Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Recording at 91 years old, for Gracie - A Love Story.